A Beautiful Mess
by MarinePixie
Summary: Holly Jennings didn't want to be a mutant, she was content with pretending everything in her life was fine when it wasn't. But life doesn't exactly work the way you want it to, which is how she ended up living with a bunch of misfit mutants like herself.
1. Chapter 1

Holly Jennings lay on her bed with one of her father's encyclopaedia's sitting on her chest, taking even and equal breaths. As long as she kept doing that then nothing would happen, none of the beyond freaky stuff that had been going on this summer would continue. It would stop and she could at least pretend that she was normal like everyone else. As she continued to lay on her bed in deep concentration she was disturbed by a gentle knock on her door, Holly knew well it enough that it was her mother. "Holly…"

"Just leave the food outside mom, I'll come and get it in a few moments." Holly called out.

"That's not why I'm here Holly, there are some people downstairs here to see you and they've come a very long way to see you…"

"Tell them I'm sleeping or some other excuse mom, I told you that I didn't want to see anyone this summer so just get rid of them, give them some sort of apology and send them on their merry way." Holly retorted, reminding herself to be calm and relax, getting worked up would not end well for her or her parents house.

"It's been three weeks since summer vacation started Holly and you haven't left your room and going to the bathroom and having a shower doesn't count, I really think you need you leave your bedroom it's not healthy being cooped up in this house all day." Caroline Jennings or mom as Holly knew her, said from behind the safety of the locked door.

That was a lie, Holly didn't spend every second in her room and she had left the house once this summer and it didn't exactly end too well and since then she had refused to leave the house and not giving any explanation as to why. But it was better for everyone this way, if Holly stayed inside. "I appreciate your concern mom but I'm perfectly fine in here."

"I'm not asking you to come out and see these people Holly, I'm telling you so get your butt out of this room right now or else I'll have your father take down your door and put it in the garage for the reminder of the summer." Mrs. Jennings threatened.

"Fine, I'll be there in a moment." Holly grimly replied and she took a deep breath as she slid the encyclopaedia off her and climbed off her bed. Walking across the semi-mess that was her bedroom Holly reluctantly unlocked her bedroom door and saw her mother standing there with a smug grin on her face. "I speak to these people, you have to leave me alone for a month and that means no more blackmailing me or threatening to have dad or Eli removed my door."

"A week."

"Three weeks." Holly counter argued.

"Two weeks and that is my final offer Holly so take it or leave it."

"Deal." Holly said begrudgingly and her mother motioned for her to get a move on so very slowly Holly carefully walked down the stairs avoiding the banisters and made her way into the living room where her father was waiting. It took a while for Holly to notice the visitors because she was too caught up in the fact that she had never realized that one of the walls in the living room was a turquoise blue colour.

"Holly?"

She hadn't even realized she wasn't paying attention until her dad David called her back to reality. "Huh?"

"If you'd like to come out of your own little world I'd like to introduce to Professor Charles Xavier, Ororo Munroe and Scott Summer their from the Xavier Institute for gifted youngsters and they would like to see you. So please try to pain attention…" Mr. Jennings told her although the last part was supposed to be a joke but Holly just chose to roll her eyes.

Holly looked at the three visitors, the first who she assumed to be the professor based on his age was this bald guy in a wheelchair and Holly had to admit looked at her just like a teacher would. The other guy who she assumed to be this summers guy was a teenager like her, Holly figured he was round about her age but he was wearing sunglasses with red lenses inside for some reason. But who was Holly to judge? She did like locking herself in her bedroom after all. Then the last person was a woman, Ororo Monroe if she remembered correctly, a kind looking African American with white hair and these really bright blue eyes who was holding a plant of some sorts in her hand. As soon as Holly saw the plant she took a couple of steps back. "Mom… you said you got rid of all of them." Holly said pointing to the plant in disgust.

"Is something the matter?" Ororo asked.

"Holly's has recently developed an aversion to plants and nature in general and we don't know really know why, it just suddenly came up so we've had to remove any plants from the house." Mrs. Jennings said.

"Why's that Holly, if you don't mind me asking?" The Professor questioned.

"Reasons I'd rather not talk about." Holly said trying her best to stay calm but it was hard for her to relax when that plant was right in front of her.

"There is nothing to fear Holly, it won't hurt you in the slightest it is just a mere houseplant." Ororo assured her.

"Don't you think I know that! And I'm not afraid of the stupid plant, but just get it out of here I don't like them being in the house so just get it our of here…" Holly gritted through her teeth.

"Holly!" Mrs. Jennings scolded.

"It's perfectly fine Mrs. Jennings, it's part of the reason why we came to see Holly in the first place. We know all about Holly and why this sudden aversion to plants has suddenly developed." The teenager that wore the red shades said, Scott? If Holly remembered.

"What are you talking about? Why one earth would you come to see me just because I don't like nature. Have you not noticed where I live? I'll give you a hint, it's a major metropolitan city with a very big space needle" Holly asked after a moment.

"These last few weeks you've noticed strange things happening to you particularly when you're around earth like cracks suddenly appearing in the side walk, plants behaving funny around you especially when your mad or stressed out." The Professor began.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Holly lied with a shake of her head, she didn't know whose benefit she was shaking her head for but it seemed to make her feel better. She knew what the Professor was taking about but she was content in living in denial and pretending everything was oh so fine in her not so sunny world.

The Professor smiled at her and Holly was certain that she would have liked him if he she had met him in another time or place. "You've suspected it for a while, haven't you Holly? That you're a mutant."

"I'm am not a mutant." Holly calmly stated, she had gone through a dozen theories about why the things that the Professor had mentioned was happening to her, alien from another world, kryptonite, bitten by radioactive spider, alien life form with no memories of her actual life. All of them she refused to except, as she was normal, most of the time…

"Mutant? Holly what on earth are you talking about?" Mrs. Jennings questioned and Holly looked at her mother as if she had lost her mind. The Professor just mentioned it and now her mother seemed to pretend like she hadn't heard it. Denial. That was the only thing that made sense, her mother was pretend like she hadn't heard the Professor just like Holly was pretending everything was fine. But then her father was giving her on odd look too, like he hadn't heard anything either.

"What did you just do?" Holly asked narrowing her eyes in the direction of the Professor, he did ask her whether she was a mutant or not and Holly knew that she had heard it and it wasn't her imagination.

"What do you think I did Holly?" The Professor questioned as he subtly tapped his head and all the pieces suddenly fell into place for Holly. But there was no way that it made sense, there was no way that this guy could have read her mind because that was impossible.

"No way, I'm not believing any of this for a second." Holly stated.

"Believe what? Holly what is going on here?" Mrs. Jennings asked.

"Holly would you mind placing your hand over the plant that Ororo has and if nothing happens, then we'll leave here and we will never bother you again." The Professor said ignoring Mrs. Jennings in favour of Holly.

"Promise?"

"Yes I do."

Rolling her eyes Holly walked over to the plant that was in Ororo's hand and held her hand over it and nothing happened and nothing happened at first but then the plant started growing on it's own accord. Holly took it from Ororo and started bashing it with her fists in order to make it stop but that just seemed to make things worse. "Damnit! Stop growing you stupid plant!" Holly yelled and the plant stopped.

"Holly what is going on here?"

"You knew that was going to happen didn't you?" Holly demanded ignoring her mother and looking straight at the Professor. For some reason he knew all about her and how these strange things were happening to her, he made a deal with her knowing full well that he'd win.

"Yes I did."

"I-I can't do this…" Holly murmured with a shake of head, dropping the plant pot on the floor and running back upstairs. She couldn't deal with any of this; she couldn't be a freak or a mutant. She could barely handle just being Holly Jennings.


	2. Chapter 2

Holly sat on the roof of her house trying to force herself to forget that the last twenty minutes had happened, she just wanted to back to when her mother forcing her to leave her bedroom was the least of her problems. No talking of plants, mutants or weird Professors who knew what she was thinking in the slightest. But it was kind of hard to forget when it was constantly replaying itself in her head, the big bad secret that she had been hiding for three weeks; the whole reason why she kept herself locked in her bedroom had now come out. Holly had no idea how she was going to face her parents. "Hey… your dad said that you'd be up here."

Looking up Holly saw that it was Scott and she wasn't sure whether or not she was relieved that it wasn't one of her parents. "I don't know what I'm going to say to them, how the hell do I explain that I am a certified freak of nature who they have the misfortune of calling their daughter?"

"You're not a freak Holly and the Professor and Ororo are explaining everything to your parents. I know this is hard to wrap your head around but being a mutant isn't as bad as you think it is." Scott assured her as he sat down beside her.

Holly looked at Scott as if he had two heads, she just made a plant come to life and he was telling her that she wasn't a freak. "Were you not paying attention to that little demonstration that I put on in my living room? I don't even know how this happened, I was completely normal until three weeks ago when this all started."

Scott took a deep breath and Holly knew that she wasn't going to like what he had to say. "We have this genetic trait that the Professor calls an X-Gene and it allows mutants to naturally develop abilities, most of us manifest abilities during puberty and then some have shown their abilities from birth and some people like the professor whilst still in the womb. Most mutants manifest their abilities in stressful situation, so something stressful must have happened to you to activate them."

"I don't want this though, I've been locking myself in my bedroom everyday for three weeks to stop this from happening, I have to make sure I'm calm and when I want to open my door I have to will myself not to do anything otherwise the door will start freaking out on it's own accord. I want to be normal again." Holly sighed as she ran her hand through her hair before tugging on her blonde ponytail, this day was just getting worse by the minute.

"We can't turn this off Holly, being a mutant is part of who we are. This is normal for us and with time you'll get used to it." Scott told Holly much to her dismay.

"Wouldn't my parents have to be a mutant or something for me to be one? You know with the whole genetic and as far as I know the closest my parents come to being mutants is when they dance in public." Holly questioned, Scott was so ruining any chances of Holly figuring out a way to get out of this mutant thing and despite him telling her there was no way out of it, she was determined to find one.

"Not necessarily, but one of them may have the gene."

Holly sighed in defeat it seemed like she was stuck with this mutant thing much to her displeasure. "There is no escaping this is there?"

"Afraid not."

"I thought you might say that." Holly began before looking at her hands. "I don't even know what this stupid thing is, all I know is that plants and stuff start freaking out whenever I go near it…"

"The Professor believes that you have Chlorokinesis and Geokinesis, which basically means you can control plants and their growth, structure, manipulate the earth and all related materials. I don't know much about it you'd have to talk about it with the Professor as he's really good with all this stuff but he's calling it earth manipulation to put it quite simply. But if you want to talk to someone who understand I'd try Ororo, she can manipulate the weather–"

"So what can you do? Fly? Or give the world's most effective yet annoying pep talk?" Holly quipped, finding a small amount of humour in this grim situation of her's for the first time.

"Neither, my eyes emit this optic beam which is why I have to wear these glasses because I can't control it. Anytime I open my eyes, things will pretty much be destroyed…"

"Wow."

"Yeah, I know and not trying to freak you any further than you already are but the Professor can read minds." Scott added.

"Yeah, I kind of figured that one out for myself." Holly said with a weary laugh and the two of them sat in silence on the room for a while in an awkward yet mildly comfortable silence. "Question. How did you all find me? I've been locked in my room for weeks on end, trying to keep this mutant thing under control and pretend like it wasn't happening to me and then the three of you magically turn up on my door."

"The Professor has this machine Cerebro, it helps him find and track down mutant anywhere in the word, that's how we were able to find you. Cerebro picked you up a couple of days ago." Scott explained.

"So the Professor's magic machine picked me up and you all came to Seattle to welcome me into the mutant club? You may want to work on how you announce the whole mutant thing, kind of a downer if you ask me but what so I know…?"

Scott laughed. "I'll take that into consideration for next time but we wanted to talk to you about coming to the institute."

"Institute?"

"I thought your dad was joking when he said that you didn't pay attention but now I think that he's right." Scott said with a small laugh.

"Hey! It's been a very stressful forty minutes, forgive me for not paying attention to everything that happened." Holly retorted, but he dad did have a point she really should start paying more attention to the things people told her. "So what is this institute? A place to lock up all of us mutants?"

Shaking his head Scott took a moment to readjust his shades. "No far from it, the institute is a place where we can learn to control and develop our powers with other people like us. The world isn't exactly mutant friendly because they don't understand and so the Professor set up the institute so it could be a safe place for mutants to go without fearing persecution. You'd like it there Holly."

"Scott I don't know, this has been all one big continual shock to me and I'm still wrapping my head around all this information. It's going to take some time to accept this whole mutant thing and I don't know whether I'm ready to pack my life up to live with other mutants." Holly said with a scratch of her head, this was a really big decision to make.

"I know it is but the Professor can help you learn how to control your powers, all of us can and so you won't be alone Holly, I'll be there but this is your choice to make. So I'll make you an offer, you come to the institute for the rest of the summer and if by the end you don't like it and you want to come home, then I'll bring you back here myself, either way it beats locking yourself in your room for the rest of the summer…"


	3. Chapter 3

Holly sat down in the garden of the institute with an icepack on her left eye, she had been there for three days and already she had hurt herself and others and today was no different as she was sporting a bruise around her eye that was no doubt going to turn into a very nasty black eye. This morning Holly got her ass handed to her via what was supposed to be a gentle simulation as it was her first time in the danger room but things didn't exactly go as planned. When Scott had told her that it was going to be hard, this wasn't exactly what she expecting and now she needed an aspirin and a nap.

"Holly?"

Looking up Holly saw the Professor coming towards her in his chair, no doubt he had heard what had happened and came to talk to her about it. In the time she had met the professor she had learnt that he was a talker, he liked to talk about things where as Holly didn't. "Hello Professor."

"I heard about what happened, I wanted to see how you were doing."

Holly removed the icepack from her eye to show the professor her eye. "Just peachy, can't ya tell?"

"I'm sorry about your eye."

"I got my ass handed to me in their professor, I couldn't use my stupid powers for some reason… there's was nothing I could do except for run as if my life depended on it and I still get my ass handed to me and by a computer simulation of all things." Holly began with a small shake of her head before wincing and putting the icepack back on her eye. "Why didn't my powers work?"

"Because you weren't in an area where there were any plants for you control, I suspected as such but could not confirm it until today. Your powers are allow you to control and manipulate earth but unless you are around earth or any other earth substance that you cannot use your powers."

"But metal comes from the earth, shouldn't that mean I can control the metal." Holly couldn't help but point out as a she tucked a piece of her blond hair fell into her face behind her ear.

"Yes but only the metals found in the earth and when it is in it's natural form which is not the earth here in the danger room." The professor explained.

"So what do you suggest I do the next time I have to go back in there? I carry a pouch of soil with me?" Holly said with a sarcastic scoff and expected the Professor to laugh with her but he didn't, in fact he was looking at her rather impressed at her suggestion.

"That's actually a good idea Holly."

"C'mon Professor you have to be kidding me? You seriously can't expect me to be carrying around soil with me! I'm the city kid, remember? I live in Seattle which is surrounded by sky scrapers and building, cabs, noise and traffic not to mention the space needle, I don't nature at all." Holly said with a sigh.

"Holly you have a remarkable gift one that allows you to control and manipulate the earth, take a look at where your sitting now and everything around us. From soil beneath the grass to the leaves at the top of the trees, you can control that and so much more. The earth has a special role in our lives, we move on her and live on her but you are connected to the earth on a far more deeper connection than anything the rest of will ever know or understand."

"Professor, when will you realize that I'm a lost cause and give up on me? Because the sooner you do the quicker I can leave and go live under a rock for the rest of my unnatural and mutated life." Holly stated before realizing what she said and the Professor smiled which only irritated her further, he found Holly amusing despite her not trying to be funny.

"Like I said Holly you have a special connection to the earth but you need to develop it further, that is how you will learn to control your powers." The Professor stated in a very zen like manner.

"And how do you suggest that? I doubt the danger room is an ideal the place." Holly said.

"Gardening."

"Professor are you kidding me, seriously gardening? Were you not listening to that mini speech I just gave about being a city kid and not liking nature in the slightest? And now you want me to do gardening… No offense Professor but have you lost your mind?" Holly retorted.

"I am not kidding and I most certainly have not lost my mind Holly, as gardening will help you create a connection to the earth as maintaining the plants here in the mansion will help you to create a connection. You'll report to Storm in the morning as she'll be helping you with your new training, enjoy…" The professor quipped.

Holly dumbly nodded as she stood up and walked away as the ice in the icepack was starting to melt, she was pretty sure all that time that the Professor spent in other people's minds was causing the old man to lose his own damn mind. Making her way back into the mansion Holly headed straight for the kitchen where Scott along with Logan were both eating a sandwich. But Holly kept her head down and headed straight to the fridge and opened the door to the freezer.

"Hey Holls! How was your first danger room session?" Scott asked and Holly just tensed up as she replaced the ice and seconds later she shut the freezer door and turned to Scott.

"How'd you think?" Holly questioned and watched as Scott's jaw literally dropped to the floor whilst Logan gruffly laughed. Both reactions where what Holly expected especially Logan's as he got off of that kind of thing as the Wolverine was in charge of their combat and survival training.

"Nice shiner you have there kiddo." Logan said and Holly just scowled her face at him.

"What happened?" Scott questioned.

Holly just shrugged her shoulders as that was a mystery in itself. "I can't remember, one minute I was running and the next second I was off my feet and seeing stars. But I can tell you one thing, it bloody hurts like hell and that my powers don't work in the danger room…"

"Your powers don't work in the danger room?!" Logan demanded and Holly wasn't sure if he was pleased or annoyed by this news. Probably pleased as it meant it was a new way to torture her, which he seemed to enjoy very much as she was fresh meant here at the institute.

"The Professor says it's because I can't use my powers if there's no actual earth to control and before you ask I maybe only able to control certain metals that come from the ground." Holly explained as she placed the icepack back on her eye.

"And what are exactly are you going to do about this? You have a date in the danger room tomorrow and I'm not taking you in there unless you can defend yourself someway."

"Chill out, we've figured it out Logan." Holly idly said not wanting to say the whole gardening thing or carrying soil around with her because that would make her a laughing stock and Logan would never let her forget it as for a grumpy grouch most of the time, he liked teasing her.

"You better have Golightly…" Logan gruffly replied as he started to make his way out of the kitchen.

"Golightly? As in Holly Golightly from Breakfast At Tiffany's… That is what you've decided to call me, seriously?" Holly asked sceptically, Logan had this thing about giving people involuntary nicknames like Scott was Shades, Jean who was another girl here at the institute was Red and the Professor was Chuck. The only people who didn't have surnames was Ororo and Holly – that was until now. And Golightly wasn't the most original nickname and plenty of people assumed that her mother named her Holly after the character. Which Holly wasn't.

"Would you prefer green fingers?" Logan questioned and Holly knew it was more of a rhetorical question than anything because Logan wasn't the type of guy to debate over nicknames and ask your opinion on them. When he gave you one that was it, no exchanges or refunds.

"No thanks, Golightly is good." Holly began before quietly snickering to herself as Logan nodded his head and continued to make his way out the kitchen "Didn't peg you as an Audrey Hepburn fan Logan…"

"I heard that Golightly!"


	4. Chapter 4

Three weeks Holly has been at the institute and she was kind of getting the hang of this mutant thing, no longer would pavements crack when she was walking on them nor would plants spontaneously start growing. She was starting to gain a little bit of control although she was sick of reading books that related to gardening, the environment, eco-systems and any book that related to the earth. The Professor was still on his 'you need to garden to build a connection to the earth' kick and Ororo wasn't helping with that at all. In fact she was worse than the professor as not only was she making Holly do gardening but also reading up on plants and flowers saying that she knowing about the all the different plants and flowers, the properties they had would be an advantage for her and her powers. Ororo had told Holly that she'd be best able to utilize her powers if she actually knew about the earth as well as being able to control it. Holly had to admit that it made sense but she hated the fact that she had to do all this working despite it being summer vacation. Scott and Jean didn't have to do any of this extra work because their powers weren't that overly complicated! Holly was certain that if this mutant thing didn't work out then she would definitely have a career as a botanist.

"Um… Holly, what are you doing?"

"Gardening, what does it look like I'm doing?" Holly replied looking up from the ground to see Scott standing above her fully decked out in his uniform with a confused look on his face. Well Holly said confused as she couldn't really judge his facial expression due to his visor covering most of his face.

"Well it looked like you were talking to that plant… So what is it?" Scott asked.

Holly looked at Scott with a frown, how could he not know what was right in front of him? It was so obvious but then again his visor of his only allowed him to see things in red so maybe Scott couldn't tell what it was. But then again Holly had seen him with what she was growing before so it couldn't be that. "It's a baby orange tree Scott, how can you not see that?"

"Oh…" Scott began with a small nod before tilting his head to the side so he could get a better look at the plant that Holly had just planted into the ground in the gardens of the institute, after it had spent the better part of two weeks sitting on top the chest of drawers in Holly's bedroom. "Why do you have an orange tree Holly? There are oranges in the kitchen if you want one, you don't have to actually grow one."

"Ha! Really funny Scott… Not, it's one of the Professor's weird ideas, he wants me to grow the baby tree into an actual tree with my powers without killing it, by the end of the summer he wants it to be about 10 feet tall…" Holly wearily replied.

"So how does talking to it make the tree actually grow?"

Holly shrugged her shoulders in a casual manner. "I don't know but it just happens, remember the day we met and Ororo handed me that plant and it just started growing? I was trying to stop it from getting any bigger by bashing it but when that didn't work I yelled at it to stop and it just did. It sounds very weird I know that but I don't think it means I can actually have conversations with plants, I think I'm just supposed to talk to the tree and encourage it grow and fill it's potential… Ack! I just heard that last bit in my head and I sounded just like the professor."

"Speaking of the Professor, he's waiting for us along with everyone else." Scott began holding his hand out for Holly to take. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be." Holly replied as she took Scott's hand and allowed him to help her up. Like most days at the institute today they had a training session although thankfully they didn't have a session in the danger room much to Holly's relief. That room was fast becoming Holly's least favourite room in the entire mansion given that Logan had her doing simulations in the danger room 2-3 times a week depending on what kind of mood he was in which influenced how much he wanted to make her suffer. At least Holly knew her to defend herself now and no longer had that nasty black eye from her first venture into the danger room. Scott and Holly walked round the gardens until they found the Professor, Wolverine and Jean all waiting for them by the pathway that was often used by obstacle course. "So… What's the plan? Run an obstacle course? Catch the flag? Or something of that degree?"

"A race." The Professor announced.

Holly frowned, she had only been at the institute for just over three weeks now but she knew what sounded like a simple race was anything but. Here at a school for mutants the kind of race the Professor was talking about meant using your powers to your advantage by using them to slow down your opponent. Holly could honestly say that things here never got boring. "A race?"

"Yes Golightly a race, we want to test your speed and agility but your ability to outthink and outwit your opponent." Wolverine explained and Holly slowly nodded, she would say that it sounded easy enough but it never was.

"Okay so who am I taking on?" Holly asked as she glanced over the group, she stood no chance against Wolverine as she had no idea how to go up against a man who was entire skeleton was made up of the indestructible adamantium. Jean, Holly reckoned she could take as she was no Wolverine and Holly had a fair idea of how she could use her powers to her advantage. Although she had to remember that Jean was telekinetic so she could have Holly off her feet and up in the air at anytime. But Holly reminded herself that they were outside surrounded by earth which was her element so they were essentially in her playground. Holly had countless things around her to aid her in winning this race. Then there was Cyclops, Holly suspected that she'd have a tricky time with him as he could keep up with her. But in there lie the challenge.

"You and Cyclops will be racing each other." The Professor stated and Holly saw Cyclops smirk from the corner of his eyes, he thought he had this but she would show him otherwise. He may have been here at the Institute for longer and had more control of his powers but Holly was still getting to grips with her abilities, which made her a wild card.

"What's the distance?" Cyclops asked.

"Where Storm is." The Professor replied and Holly could make out Storm hovering in the air about 300 meters away. The length of the race was long enough for them to do considerable damage to each other. This was certainly going to be interesting.

"Let's get this over with." Holly said rubbing her hands together apprehensively, the sooner she got this over with then the quicker Holly could get back to her orange tree.

"Worried?" Cyclops quipped.

"In your dreams Summers!" Holly retorted.

"Enough with the smack talk already and get in position behind the start line." Wolverine growled, pointing to the aforementioned start line and not needing to be told twice both Holly and Cyclops got into position. "On your marks, get set…GO!"

At the sound of go Holly immediately set off running and she must have run about twenty meters when she saw a blast of red in front of her and seconds last she tripped over herself and broken up bits of stone. No thanks to Cyclops naturally, as she lay on her front Holly saw Cyclops just about to run past her and without hesitating Holly held out her arm and yanked Cyclops down. Holly knew that she hadn't used her powers but it wasn't like they were exactly running a fair race. It was every mutant for themselves. "See ya sucker!"

"Oh I'm going to get you for that Jennings!" Cyclops retorted but Holly didn't acknowledge him, instead she kept running as she wasn't going to waste anytime waiting for Cyclops given that this was a race.

However Holly severely under estimated how much Cyclops wanted to win because when he said he was going to get her back she surely meant that. Holly spent the next hundred meters tripping over or avoiding Cyclops optic blasts and in retaliation she'd use her powers to cause the ground to rise, causing Cyclops to fall off balance. After being sent to the ground once more by Cyclops, Holly decided to do something a little bit different this time. So placing her hand on the stone walkway that they were using a track, Holly caused roots to emerge from the ground and had them wrap themselves tightly round Cyclops legs, making him unable to run or move. Cyclops retaliated by blasting the roots off and Holly knew she had to take this one step further as there was no way she was losing this race to Cyclops. This wasn't just a simple race, it was a matter of pride and as the new girl Holly had something to prove. So in order to stop Cyclops from freeing himself Holly used her powers to drag him into the ground as not only would it be funny to watch Cyclops try and free himself but it would given holly the advantage and time to easily win the race.

Holly sank Cyclops into the ground until he was stuck from his knees down until she realized there was no point or fun in only half submerging Cyclops into the ground, if she going to do it then she might as well do it properly. With a wicked grin on her face Holly smirked at Cyclops who seemed to guess what she was trying to do and attempted to blast her but Holly saw it coming and moved out the way just in time.

"Don't even think about it Holly!"

"I'm not, I'm just going to do!" Holly retorted as she rose to feet and stamped her foot on the ground and Cyclops continued to keep sinking further into the ground. Holly had to concentrate as she needed to know the right moment to stop because if she wasn't careful she'd submerge Cyclops completely under ground and the last thing she wanted to do was kill him, Holly just wanted to beat him. It was when Cyclops was submerged from his shoulders down that Holly stopped given that there was no way he could claw himself free or blast her given that he needed his hands for that. Blowing Cyclops a kiss goodbye, Holly sprinted down to the finish line leaving Cyclops behind and she was greeted by Storm upon her victory.

"Congratulations Holly." Storm said with a warm smile and Holly just beamed, just under a month ago her abilities had manifested and she could barely control them. But now she could use them somewhat well enough to beat Cyclops in a race! Holly was literally on cloud 9 and suspected she would be for a while.

"Thank you!" Holly replied.

Moments later Holly and Storm were called back to join the others who had all decided to convene around Cyclops who was still very much stick much to his avail. Holly found it hilarious that he was trying to wiggle himself free as if that would actually work.

"Impressive sprint back there Golightly." Wolverine said and Holly felt like she needed to sit down because of all this excitement, first beating Cyclops and now receiving a compliment from Wolverine of all people? Holly was convinced she was going to wake up in her bed any second now and realize this was all a dream.

"Did I forget to mention that I'm on the track team back home? The 400 and 800m are my pick of the poison. " Holly quipped.

"That was a very impressive display of your powers Holly, I'm very proud." The Professor began and Holly watched as his eyes drifted over to Cyclops who was looking even more uncomfortable by the minute. "Would you mind letting Cyclops free? He looks just a tad bit trapped…"

"About that, I may not know how…" Holly wearily said scratching the top of her head.

"Holly you had better be kidding!" Cyclops said and his tone of voice suggested that he was not happy at the sound of Holly's little announcement.

"Afraid not!"

"You don't know how to get him out? You're the one who put him in there Golightly!" Wolverine stated and all and any pride or feelings of being impressed by Holly had immediately disappeared.

"Hey! Only been this mutant thing for a couple of weeks now and some of us did not come out of the mutant closet with complete control of their powers like the Professor. Some of us are still in the learning process…" Holly replied and Wolverine just rolled his eyes, Holly had recently noticed that he did that a lot whilst she was around.

"I'll go get the shovel..."


	5. Chapter 5

Sighing to herself as she paddled her feet in the pool Holly looked up at the clear blue sky. It was a beautiful day in Bayville but Holly was feeling far too glum to appreciate the day. The institute was pretty much empty as Jean had gone home for few weeks then Logan, Ororo and Scott had left to go talk to mutant who had suddenly manifested in their abilities down in Texas, Holly was supposed to go with them to see what it was like from the other side. To go and talk to someone who was going through what she herself had gone through six weeks ago when Holly first came into her powers. But Holly felt that she'd do more harm than good considering the mood she was in so she decided not to go, so it was only her and the Professor in the institute although he was doing god knows what in his study. Or so she thought until Holly saw the Professor making his way over to her.

"Hello Holly."

"Hi Professor." Holly wearily replied.

"Recently you've seemed very down, is there anything you want to talk about?" Professor Xavier asked.

"You're the mind reader Professor you tell me what's wrong." Holly said giving the professor permission to read her mind, when Holly had first came to the institute she was worried about having her mind constantly read. But the professor was really big on privacy not to mention trust which Holly really respected about him when the professor told her he'd only read her mind if he believed her to be in any kind of trouble or dangle and if she wanted him to.

"This is about your brother Ellis–" Professor Xavier said after a moment.

"–Eli." Holly corrected. "No one ever calls him Ellis, he's always just been Eli."

"Forgive me, so this is about Eli?"

Holly nodded. "When you, Scott and Ororo came to my house my brother was away, he attends college in California but he went on a trip with some friends when the school year was over. My parents didn't want to tell him about me over the phone, that news as I'm sure you well know is something that you have to do in person so they decided to wait until he came but they had no idea when that would be. Eli finally came home a week ago and my parents told him about me being a mutant four days ago. He didn't take the news well, in fact he took the news worse than I did…"

"Holly…" Professor Xavier began and Holly could see the sympathetic look in his eyes.

"It's fine Professor, you know it's a lot of information for one person to take in… One minute you think your baby sister is that weird little goofball who you love to tease, the next minute you come home from a trip away to find out that your weird goofball sister is actually a mutant. My parents said that Eli is mad and confused but he just needs to time. It was a shock to me and look at me now, I'm here at the institute learning how to control my abilities and my parents haven't disowned me for being a mutant." Holly said forcing herself to laugh she was pretty upset about her brother and sure her parents wanted her to come home so they could deal with this as a family. But Holly knew that was a bad idea, her brother was angry and his emotions were all over the place so adding her into the mix was a bad idea. Holly didn't used to have much control over her abilities and her emotions didn't help with that, any change in her temperament would cause plants to spontaneously grow on their own accord. So Holly going home where she'd be in a room with a lots of emotions flying across the room was a bad idea given that she only just had her abilities under a reasonable amount of control

"Indeed."

"I know I wasn't that receptive to being a mutant at first, it wasn't because I was anti-mutant… It just that being a teenager is hard enough without having abilities and then having the label stuck on you. I knew what I was after a couple of days of my abilities manifesting, I was just in denial for the longest amount of time. I thought if I pretend like nothing was wrong and I was fine then I would be, turns out there was nothing wrong with me in the first place. Embracing what I am and what I can do have pretty liberating you know?"

"Is that so Holly?" Professor Xavier asked with a small smirk appearing in the corner of his mouth.

"Finding out I'm a mutant was pretty shocking and I'll admit that I wouldn't have chosen to be one but it's part of who I am. I understand that now, last couple of weeks I feel like everything is kind of starting to fit into place. Being a teenager is all about discovering who you are and I feel that this mutant thing is me finally starting to find out who Holly Jennings really is. Having abilities isn't going to make my life any easier and so I can't fly… But I can manipulate the earth which is pretty cool although Scott is still claiming he's going to get me back for what happened last week during that race." Holly wearily laughed before taking a deep breath. "Can I ask you something Professor?"

"Of course Holly."

"Why do this? Why do you do the things you do like set up the institute and take in mutants? No one ever asked you to but here you are. It may sound weird but I've never thought to ask until now…" Holly questioned and the professor just smiled.

"Well if you'd like to take a walk with me Holly, I'd like to explain to you." Professor Xavier offered and always one for a good story Holly pulled her legs from out of the pool, grabbed her flip flops and began walking with the professor. "My dear Holly, for a long while I've had a dream where mutants and humans could live together in peace. But I'm afraid that dream is a long way away, care to venture a guess as to why?"

"Because people fear what they do not know? Humans see us mutants as being some kind of dangerous monster that need to be controlled and monitored." Holly ventured as she knew that people spoke of being a mutant like it was some kind of disease but Holly knew that wasn't true. Her along with her fellow mutants did have a mutation in their dna but there was the only difference between them and regular humans.

"Correct and for the most part humans do not seem ready to accept our kind and as such mutants face persecution which is why I set up the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters here at my ancestral home. I created the institute so that fellow mutants like yourself could come to a safe place where they could be accepted by their peers and not fear persecution but also learn to control their gift and use it responsibly." Professor Xavier explained.

"I'm glad you did." Holly quietly said as she knew she'd probably be still locked up in her bedroom becoming a complete and utter wreck close to losing her sanity if the professor hadn't come and found her.

"But I'm afraid Holly that it's not just the human persecution and oppression of mutants that I worry about, along with dedicating my life to helping my fellow humans I want to protect humanity from mutants who do not share my beliefs and aim to cause humans harm."

"I don't think I understand professor, why would any mutant want to harm humans? Surely they'd want to live in a world where we could be accepted and live in a co-existence with humans? In the end we're all humans, it's just us mutants have one gene that makes us only slightly different." Holly asked.

"Some mutants believe that we cannot exist along with humans, these kind of mutants have extremist views believing that we are the superior race and that humans should bow down to us. There are certain mutants who believe that one day a war will occur between humans and mutants." Professor Xavier wearily said.

"And do you think there will be a war?" Holly asked after a moment as the idea of a full blown war was pretty scary especially one between humans and mutants. Especially since her family were humans and Holly was a mutant, she didn't want to pick sides if it ever came down to that.

"There is always a war going on Holly…" The Professor replied.

"But between mutants and humans, do you think one could really happen?"

"It's a possibility, one I hope to avoid but not everyone shares my attitude and beliefs towards human and mutant relations. Which is why I aim to teach my students that peaceful relations and co-existence between mutants and humans may someday be possible. If we want this to happen then we have to be an example and show the world that there are mutants who are no danger to human kind and only want to live in peace."

"Be the change you want to see the world, huh? It's not going to be easy to get accepted Professor, stuff like that doesn't just happen over night it takes time…" Holly stated.

"Exactly, which is why the X-Men were established."

"Superpowers taking on prejudice, oppression and everything else that will be thrown at us for being a mutants. That's a new one…" Holly quipped.

"Perhaps a cause you may be interested in taking up one day, if you ever decided to join the X-Men." Professor Xavier suggested.

Holly felt her cheeks tinge pink. "I don't know Professor you might want to hold an offer like that off until I can learn how to free Scott from being submerged in the ground from the shoulders down using my powers instead of using Logan and a couple of shovels…"


End file.
